LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh becomes the first state in the country to adopt the Central law banning carrying of night soil on head by scavengers. Under the law, the act will be a cognizable offence and carry a sentence of minimum two-year rigorous imprisonment. The burden of the offence will be primarily on those having "dry latrines."

A law enacted by the Centre a few years back was formally adopted by the state after the approval of the cabinet at its meeting presided over by chief minister Rajnath Singh here on Saturday.

Earlier, an announcement to this effect was also made by urban development minister Lalji Tandon in both Houses of the state legislature in his budget speech. When asked to comment, Tandon said that dry latrines would have to be necessarily replaced by flush latrines by the house owners both in rural and urban areas.